


SSSN

by CaptainTucker



Category: RWBY
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-09-29
Updated: 2014-09-29
Packaged: 2018-02-19 05:56:04
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,157
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2377286
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CaptainTucker/pseuds/CaptainTucker
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>How SSSN came to be.</p>
            </blockquote>





	SSSN

**Author's Note:**

> This started out as a small headcanon, and then it exploded. A huge thanks to eeast-ringer and miss-nerdgasmz, who helped me beta this fic, and made it ten times more awesome. Also, please note that I have played around with the heights for Sage and Scarlet. This is because I love the idea of them at these heights, and it is my own opinion, not canon.

Sun is excited. Today is the day that Scarlet and Sage _finally_ arrive, and he can’t wait. After a year and a half of the four of them never really being apart for more than a day or two, the three weeks since Sun left them behind in Mistral have been a bit rough. That’s not to say he hasn’t enjoyed his time with Team RWBY, and Neptune once he arrived, but it’s always better when the four of them are together.

He’s been down at the docks for an hour now, which is fifty minutes longer than he needed to be, but hey. He’s excited, sue him. He doesn’t know which berth their ship will be arriving at, so he’s tucked away in a discreet corner, constantly scanning the entire area, which is full of people. They shouldn’t be _too_ hard to miss though, what with Sage being 6’8” and having green hair. Makes it kind of easy to spot him in a crowd. Scarlet’s a bit harder, at their tiny 5’7”, but they’re usually right next to Sage, so it doesn’t really matter.

It’s another ten minutes before he spots anything, and when he does it’s a flash of familiar red turning the corner up the other end of the docks. Sun takes off in a jog, headed eagerly for what he hopes is his friend. He turns the corner and realises that yes, that is very definitely his teammate’s red jacket over his teammate’s tiny shoulder, and grins widely.

“Scarlet!” he cheers, running towards his friend. Scarlet turns, and their visible eye widens.

“Sage!” they call with urgency, taking a step back. Sage materialises out of nowhere right as Sun jumps towards Scarlet, and grabs Sun around the waist, pulling the blonde up short.

“Aw, Sage!” Sun whines, wriggling to get out of Sage’s bear-like grip. Sage pays Sun’s struggle no mind, and readjusts him so he’s being carried under Sage’s right arm like a carpet or something.

“No jumping on Scarlet.” Sage says in his deep voice. “You nearly crushed them last time.”

“And I promised to be more careful!” Sun replies, crossing his arms with a huff while his tail lashes behind him.

“No jumping.” Sage repeats firmly.

“You’re no fun.” Sun grumbles under in his breath, sagging like a sack of potatoes under Sage’s arm, his arms,legs and tail dangling in the air. Sage is 8 inches taller than Sun, and he’s also definitely stronger, so until he decides to let go, Sun’s stuck.

“Did you have fun without us?” Scarlet asks, stepping forward and ruffling Sun’s hair with a smile.

“Scarlet, nooooooo,” Sun whines, trying to wriggle away from Scarlet’s hand. “How could you? You know it takes me forever to get it looking this good.”

“That’s why I do it,” Scarlet says, grinning. “It’s not like anyone can _really_ tell the difference.”

Sun pouts and jabs Sage in the thigh with his elbow, and when Sage’s arm around his waist loosens, he immediately clambers around Sage’s body and up onto his broad shoulders, where he perches and pokes his tongue out at Scarlet.

“You suck.” he says, while Scarlet laughs.

“Aw, don’t be like that, monkey boy,” they tease, reaching up to try and poke at his face. Sun bats their hand away every time they get close. “You know you’d hate it if I stopped.”

“That is totally beside the point!” Sun protests.

Scarlet finally stops trying to reach him, laughing too hard to stand up straight anymore.

“I’ve missed you and Neptune,” they say when they’ve managed to stop laughing and get their breath back. “It’s just not the same without you two.” Sage nods in agreement, nearly knocking Sun off balance.

“Yeah, same here,” Sun says, running his fingers through Sage’s hair. It had started out as a joke, Sun pretending one night to look for bugs in Sage’s grass green hair, but it had turned out that Sage actually really enjoyed having his hair played with, so Sun kept it up over the time they’d known each other. “I had a good time here though. I met these really awesome girls, Team RWBY, and another really cool team, JNPR. They had a huge food fight, and totally destroyed the cafeteria! JNPR put up a good fight, but Ruby totally destroyed them. She was like _shoom_ and they were like _whoosh_ and _splat_. Nora knocked Yang up out of the roof for a whole minute and a half though! And I fought this bad guy with them, twice, although the second time I got knocked off the highway with Neptune, and I was kind of exhausted cause I’d run from the giant robot he was controlling and nearly got run over a couple of times _and_ used my semblance and I was pretty much out of aura, so we just went and got noodles. RWBY beat him though, totally smashed the robot into smithereens. It was awesome. And the noodles were really good.” Sun rambles, before finally stopping to draw breath.

“Sounds like you enjoyed yourself.” Scarlet says.

Sun nods in agreement. “I think you guys are really going to like RWBY. They’re awesome. I reckon Yang could totally take you in an arm-wrestling match, Sage,” he says, poking Sage’s cheek.

Sage tilts his head back to look at Sun with a raised eyebrow.

Sun nods again. “Yeah, even with the arm. She’s _really_ strong.”

“Sounds like something we’ll have to test,” Sage says, smiling.

“Hey dude, is that thing your pet? You should really put it on a leash!” a guy walking past calls to Sage, before laughing obnoxiously with all his friends. Sun sinks down lower onto Sage’s shoulders, not looking at the pack of idiots. He knows from experience that trying to talk back against large groups is not a good idea. One on one, he’ll totally sass them out and then run away. Not big groups though.

“Hey, why don’t you mind your own damn business?” Scarlet calls back loudly, flicking both middle fingers at the guy.

“What’d you say to me?” the guy says, coming to a stop and turning back around to face them.

“I said, mind your own damn business, idiot!” Scarlet repeats. “What, are you deaf as well as dumb?”

“Scarlet, you don’t have to do this,” Sun hisses. “There’s like ten of them.”

“No one gets to treat my team leader and _friend_ like that.” Scarlet says defiantly. “Especially not someone that doesn’t even have two brain cells to rub together.”

“You think you can speak to me like that?” the guy asks, stepping closer.

“I think I just _did_.” Scarlet says, shrugging with their hands out to the sides. “Sorry, no take-backsies.”

“You’re gonna regret this,” the guy threatens, taking another step forward, close enough now that he’s looming over Scarlet.

Scarlet pretends to think for a second. “Naaaaaah,” they say after they’re done, grinning. “I really don’t think so.”

No-one’s expecting it when the guy’s fist slams forward and makes contact with Scarlet’s cheek, knocking them flat on their back. Sun tenses, ready to pounce on the guy from Sage’s shoulders, and Sage takes half a step forward, before they both stop, although they’re ready to step in at a moment’s notice. Scarlet wasn’t expecting the attack, but they can handle themselves. On the ground, Scarlet sits up and runs their hand under their nose, doing a cursory check for blood. Then they start to giggle, which quickly becomes full blown laughter.

“He hits even softer than Flint!” they exclaim, standing up and brushing of their clothes. “Flint was a four year old, by the way,” they explain patronizingly to the guy.

This time, when the fist comes towards their face, they’re ready for it. They dodge left, grab the idiot’s wrist, and pull down sharply, sticking their foot out in front of the guy’s ankle at the same time, and the guy eats dirt hard.

Scarlet squats down beside the guy, and rests their elbows on their knees, their hands dangling in front of them.

“You really picked the wrong people to mess with,” they say in a pleasant tone. “You see, any one of the three of us could kick your ass, and while we’re not _supposed_ to fight civilians, if you attack first, I’m sure we could get away with it. And we’re second year hunters. We’re _leagues_ better than a bunch of back street brawlers.”

The guy pushes himself up off the ground, spitting out filth. The street they’re on, just past the end of the docks, is a dirty place with so many people and going, and Sun doesn’t envy him having his face pushed to the ground. His hand goes for the small knife that the three of them can see in his waistband, now that his shirt has ridden up. Scarlet slams their left fist into the glove on their right hand, and pushes their gloved hand forward, stopping a few inches away from the guy’s face as flames start to flicker to life in the palm of their hand.

“Don’t do that,” they say, carefully moving their hand away as the flame grows bigger, just enough that it never quite touches the guy’s face. “You really don’t want to find out what’s gonna happen if you do.”

Scowling, the guy slowly puts his hand back in front of him.

“Seriously, man, you can’t win,” Scarlet says, pulling their hand back and holding the pear-sized flame up close to their face, tilting it from side to side. “Give up now.” The hot air from the flame rises, gently pushing their hair up off their face enough that the guy can see what’s beneath it. He jerks back, then scrambles to his feet and steps quickly back to his idiotic gang.

“Let’s just go, leave the freaks alone,” he says, acting like it was his decision all along. “They’re not even worth it.” He starts walking away quickly, the rest of his friends trailing along after him.

“Bye!” Scarlet calls after them. “Nice meeting you!” Halfway down the road, the guy only walks faster. They wait until he’s out of sight, then turn around to face Sage and Sun.

“I guess he didn’t like the look of my face for some reason,” they say with an innocent shrug.

Sun still remembers, vividly, exactly how their face came to be the way it is.

1 Year, 6 Months Earlier

All the new students of Haven Academy have been dropped off throughout the forest next to the academy, and instructed to join up with people as they meet, until they have groups of four, which will become their teams for their time at Haven.

Sun’s hoping to meet up with Neptune, another hunter in training who he’d become best friends with a few years ago, but as he wanders into a clearing and notices someone else already standing in it, he realises that the most he can hope for is finding Neptune second or third. The redhead looks at him, blinks, smiles, and then says “Hi, I’m Scarlet. I prefer they and them pronouns.”

Sun shrugs. “Sure, no problem.” He used to have a friend who used different pronouns, so it really isn’t. Anyway, he’s just happy that he’s found someone who doesn’t seem to mind the fact that he’s a Faunus. He’d heard some of the other new students whispering about him behind his back, and he’d _really_ hoped he wouldn’t run into any of them.

“Anyway, I’m Sun. I use he/him/his.” Sun says, waving with two fingers in a mini salute.

“Nice to meet you, Sun.” Scarlet replies, nodding.

“So...guess we’d better go find the other half of our team,” Sun says, gesturing off to the side of the clearing.

“Lead on, my friend.” Scarlet says with a joking half-bow, flicking their hair back from where it’s fallen over the right side of their face as they stand up, smiling.

“You know what, I have a feeling that we’re going to get along well,” Sun says, lacing his hands behind his head as they walk out of the clearing. Scarlet just smiles.

\-------------------------------------------

Half an hour later, they’re still walking, and Sun’s spirits are starting to flag.

“This is so _boring_ ,” he says, kicking a rock along the ground. “How can we walk around in a forest with ninety-eight other people, and not come across a single one for an entire half hour?”

Scarlet shrugs. “Bad luck?” they suggest, kicking the rock back over to Sun when it skitters towards them.

Sun groans again as he enters the next clearing, and then stops dead.

“No, I think _that’s_ bad luck,” he says in a strangled whisper, staring at the two beowolves at the other end of the clearing.

“Yeah, that definitely looks like bad luck,” Scarlet hisses back. “Back up slowly, I don’t think they’ve seen us yet, and we’re downwind. We might be able to get away.”

Sun nods and slowly starts stepping backwards, not wanting to look away from the monsters. He gets about five steps before Scarlet lets out a strangled noise.

“Hey Sun?” they say in a strained voice. “I think there’s another one.”

“Where?” Sun hisses.

“Uh, right behind me?” Scarlet replies.

Sun dares to glance away from the monsters across the clearing and sideways towards Scarlet, and yeah, that’s a _big_ beowolf standing literally right behind Scarlet, snarling silently.

“Move!” Sun yells, abandoning all hopes of not being noticed. He pulls out Ruyi Bang and Jingu Bang, deftly snapping them together and swinging the staff over Scarlet’s head as they duck and run, intercepting the deadly claws that were aimed for their head.

The smaller beowolves at the other end of the clearing turn and snarl as Scarlet moves closer, but don’t come any closer as the redhead skids to a stop in the middle of the clearing. Sun thinks they might be acting as guards, stopping the prey of their leader from getting away, but not attacking on their own. Sun’s struggle against the beowolf comes to an abrupt end as the monster stops trying to slash down past his staff, and instead pushes him aside and rushes past him, towards Scarlet’s unsuspecting back.

“Scarlet! Catch and block!” Sun yells as loud as he can, throwing his staff like a spear towards Scarlet. He could have just warned them, but he doesn’t think they’d have enough time to turn, realise what was going on, get out their weapon, _and_ block the beowolf. No, he can see that ending badly. Better to take care of it all at once, even if it means throwing his weapon away.

Scarlet turns, and their eyes widen as they see the beowolf bearing down on them and the staff flying towards their head. They reach out and catch it on instinct (thank god for the basic training hunters-to-be in Mistral get with a variety of weapons), twirling it around once before thrusting the staff upwards, catching the beowolf’s claws in the middle of the staff, although Sun can see their knees buckle with the effort. It’s obvious that they’re made for quick movements and attacking from out of their opponent’s range, not for close combat or with brute force. They won’t last long in a close range fight with a beowolf. Sun needs to get in there quickly and divert the beowolf’s attention back to him.

So he takes off towards the pair, aiming to kick the back of the beowolf’s knee and knock it off balance enough to get his weapon back and get Scarlet out of the way.

And then he trips. Looking back now, he still doesn’t know how it happened. He doesn’t trip, ever. His balance is too good thanks to his tail and his enhanced reflexes. But……he trips. And it distracts Scarlet for not even a split-second – but it’s long enough. The beowolf swipes down at Scarlet, and they aren’t able to bring up Sun’s weapon or dodge away fast enough to entirely escape the razor sharp claws aimed for their face.

And then Scarlet’s lying on the ground, screaming and clutching at the right side of their face as blood pours out over their fingers. The beowolf roars loudly and its pack members join in, sensing victory as the scent of blood weaves through the air. It lifts its arm, ready to slash down and kill its prey. As the deadly claws come down, though, the beowolf is thrown sideways by a blur of white, brown, and green, which soon resolves itself into a tall, dark boy with green hair, one of the other new students Sun had seen in the hall the other night. He’s followed by Neptune with his glaive out, who places himself in between Scarlet and the smaller beowolves, who start to get restless now that their prey isn’t outnumbered, making short charges in and backing off again and again as Neptune fends them off.

“Sun,” Neptune says, not taking his eyes off the smaller monsters which now pose a more serious threat than the leader, who is being held off by the green guy. “You take the one on the left, I’ll take the one on the right. Sage should be able to hold off the big one until we’re done.”

“Got it,” Sun replies, scrambling to his feet and darting over to Scarlet, who’s moaning and shuddering, clutching at their face which is now covered in blood. “Oh shit,” he whispers, picking up his staff. “Holy crap. Just…just hold on until we get rid of these monsters, alright? Please don’t die.”

Scarlet doesn’t reply, and Sun doesn’t really blame them. If he’d had his face ripped open by a beowolf, he wouldn’t really want to talk either. He stands up and separates Ruyi Bang and Jingu Bang, twirling them around a few times to loosen himself up. “Alright, let’s kill these assholes,” he says darkly, moving up to stand beside Neptune.

“On three?” Neptune asks.

“Sure.” Sun replies. “One….”

“Two…”

“Three!” they yell together, charging the beowolves. Separated, and as small as they are, the beowolves don’t put up nearly as much of a fight as the huge one. It only takes Sun and Neptune a few minutes to kill them, although not without a tiny slice on Neptune’s forearm, where his enemy got in a lucky shot. It won’t bother him for more than a day or so.

As the corpses collapse in front of them, they hear rustling and a rough groaning sound behind them. Sun turns around and Scarlet’s on their knees, slowly forcing their way up to their feet. They pull out their weapon, a chain whip, as they stand up, and flick it out to untangle it once they’re steady. Then they hold the handle out in front of them with both hands, before ripping their gloved right hand down the length of the whip, the metal sparking dramatically. As Sun watches, the metal links of the whip start glowing red, then orange, before quickly brightening up to a yellowish-white. Scarlet must have Fire Dust infused in their glove. Smart.

Across the clearing, the beowolf backhands the green guy - Sun can’t remember. Sage, was it? Yeah, that sounds right - and sends him flying into a tree, hard, where he is momentarily stunned.

“Blue! Trip it!” Scarlet yells as they run forward, spinning the metal links of their chain whip around their body in a confusing blur before whipping it forward so that the end wraps tight around the beowolf’s neck, then jerking back hard on the handle. The force, along with the glaive Neptune throws into the ground on an angle behind the monster’s left ankle, is enough to bring it crashing to the ground. The monster howls as the metal burns through its thick fur and starts sizzling away at the flesh beneath. It starts scrabbling at the metal, tearing out chunks of hair and flesh as it does so, but it doesn’t seem to be able to tear off the whip.

“One of you, cut its head off!” Scarlet yells, pulling the whip from side to side, trying to keep the beowolf from trying to climb to its feet. Green guy flexes his right arm and an honest to god blade slides out of it, kind of like that Honey Badger guy from those Y-Men comics that Neptune likes to read, except across the knuckles instead of between them. He slams it down on the throat of the beowolf, just above the whip. The blade doesn’t cut all the way through, and the monster twitches and moves for a minute more, until finally it goes limp.

The four of them stand there a moment, panting, staring at the corpse.

“So, that was a thing,” Scarlet says in a wavery voice after a minute, looking at them with a wide eye. The other eye, and in fact the entire right side of their face, is covered by their hair, wet and matted with blood. “Nice to meet you. I’m Scarlet, and, uh, I’m gonna pass out for a bit now, ok?” they say before collapsing sideways. Sun yelps and leaps forward, managing to catch them before they hit the ground.

He slowly lowers them down, and gently pushes the hair that has flopped back into their face off to the side. He hisses sharply as he takes in the horrible sight – the right side of Scarlet’s face is ripped open, starting from halfway up their forehead, down over the middle of their eye, and finishing in the middle of their cheek. Their face is covered in blood and gore, and Sun is pretty sure that the flash of white he can see in their cheek is actually bone. He’s pretty sure they’ll never be able to see out of the eye again. They’ll be lucky if they even keep it.

“We need to get them back and to a hospital,” Sun says, pulling off his shirt and starting to tear strips off. If he wads up the rest of the shirt over the wound and ties it down, it might be able to do something to stop the bleeding.

“Them?” Neptune asks curiously, moving to stand behind Sun.

“They/them instead of he/she and him/her,” Sun replies distractedly. “Like that friend of mine I told you about, K.”

“Oh, okay.” Neptune replies. “Anything I can do to help?”

“Yeah, you can pack up Ruyi and Jingu for me,” Sun replies, nodding his head to where he’d dropped the weapons when he’d dived to catch Scarlet. “We need to get back as soon as we can. Hey Sage!” he calls, wincing as he pulls the first tie tight around Scarlet’s forehead. “Do you think you can carry them back?”

“Yeah, I can carry them.,” Sage says, wiping his arm-blade clean of blood against the grass, and then flexing his arm so it slides back in.

“Great,” Sun says, tying the second strip just on the bridge of their nose, and lining the third one up with the skin between their mouth and nose. It’s going to look messy, and it probably won’t be comfortable if Scarlet wakes up, but it’ll do its job of holding their blood in. Hopefully. “Also, that arm is really cool.”

“Lost it when I was a kid,” Sage says, stepping forwards. “Got a basic fake arm when I was growing up. Decided when I was going to be a hunter that I might as well turn a disadvantage into a weapon. It’s made out of solid enough material to act as a shield, it’s got a sword inside, and if I turn my hand just right, it’s a gun as well.”

“That is _so_ cool.” Sun repeats.

“Sun, how do these things go together?” Neptune calls, sounding frustrated.

“Turn the handles opposite ways and click them together, then push the barrel ends together!” Sun replies, then listens until he hears a click. “Yeah, there you go.” He pulls tight the last tie, then gently tugs at the wadded up shirt to make sure it’ll stay in place. “Alright, I think that’s about as good as I can get it,” he says, sitting back and wiping his hands on the grass, trying to get as much blood as he can off his hands. Not a lot comes off. Sun tries very hard to not think about how he has Scarlet’s blood on his hands in more ways than one. “Okay, Sage, can you pick them up please? Just be careful, I don’t really want to test how well those knots’ll hold together.

“Got it.” Sage says, nodding and carefully scooping up Scarlet, gently positioning their head against his shoulder.

“Here,” Neptune says, coming over with Sun’s weapons, both neatly folded.

“Thanks Nep,” Sun says, taking them and tucking them back into his shirt. “Alright, let’s get going. The sooner we get back the better.”

“Do you know which way the academy is?” Sage asks. “Because I don’t.”

“Me neither,” Neptune says, pulling his weapon out of the dirt, folding it up, and tucking it away.

“Uh, give me a second,” Sun says, taking off for the tallest tree in the clearing. He throws himself up it, his tail and excellent balance helping him to practically fly up to the top. He pokes his head past the canopy foliage, and scans around until he spots the towers of the academy in the distance. He carefully notes which direction it’s in, then swings down the tree and lands back in the clearing. “Okay, we need to go that way,” he says, pointing in the right direction. “It looks like it might be an hour and a half, an hour if we walk quickly.”

“I can run and keep their head still,” Sage offers, nodding his head towards his right arm. “Stabilizing tech.”

“You sure?” Sun asks.

Sage nods.

“Alright then. If we run we can probably make it in twenty minutes.” Sun says.

“Much better than an hour.” Sage says. “Lead the way, Sun.”

Sun nods. “Alright. Let’s go.” he says, before turning and running towards the edge of the clearing, Neptune and Sage right behind him.

\----------------------------------------------------------

4 Days Later

Sun wakes up with a terrible crick in his neck, because apparently sometime last night his head slipped over the footboard of Scarlet’s hospital bed. Scarlet was small enough that as long as Sun stayed curled up, he could fit easily onto the end of the bed. Sage, being the biggest, had taken the rollout mattress the nurses had given them, and Neptune had curled up in the chair in the corner of the room, although now he was sprawled out, snoring and almost falling off the chair. Sun sits up and moans in pain as he slowly stretches out his neck. It feels like the damn thing’s going to snap off if he tries to turn it all the way to the left.

“Stupid hospital beds.” he mumbles.

“Morning sunshine,” he hears a raspy voice say. “Sleep well?”

Sun forgets about the crick in his neck and turns his head around so fast he almost falls off the bed.

“Scarlet! You’re awake!” he says, trying to keep his voice down so he doesn’t wake up Neptune or Sage.

“Yeah.” Scarlet replies, carefully sitting up. “My head hurts enough that I kind of wish I wasn’t, but yes I am.”

“You’ve been asleep for _four days_.” Sun says. “I was worried you were never gonna wake up.”

“Nah, you can’t get rid of me that easily.” Scarlet says with a grin that quickly turns into a wince as it pulls at the wound that’s only just starting to knit back together and heal over. They pause a few seconds later, and sniff at the air. “….did you guys _shower_ while I’ve been in here?’ they ask carefully.

Sun suddenly finds the ugly painting on the wall very interesting.

“Sun.” Scarlet says, crossing their arms.

“We were _really_ worried.” Sun says, flicking his tail around into his hands and combing his fingernails through the fur, still not looking at Scarlet. “I mean, we didn’t even _eat_ the first day, not until one of the nurses brought up some extra meals. Apparently they see a lot of Hunter teams through here, because they handle all the injuries that are too big for the hospital wing back at the Academy, and they’re kind of used to it now.”

Scarlet sighs, shaking their head. “You guys are idiots.” they say. “You’re all going to shower today, right after you all eat breakfast. And you’re going to _continue_ to shower each day, and eat at least twice a day. Got it?”

“Got it.” Sun says.

“Speaking of breakfast, is there any way we could get some up here?” Scarlet asks. “I’m starving.”

“Um, I think so,” Sun says, reaching over the footboard and unhooking the datacomm pad that’s hanging there. “It’s actually nearly lunch time, I think, but the nurse said we could send requests to the kitchen if you woke up out of meal times, and they’d bring something up. It’s going to be soft foods for a while, I think she said, cause you don’t wanna be chewing foods until the, uh, scar starts to actually, you know, scar.” he rambles, poking at the pad until it comes up with the menu options.

“Soft foods are fine,” Scarlet says, reaching up to touch the bandages covering the right side of their face, as if they’ve only just noticed them now. “Hey Sun? How…..how bad is it?”

Sun grips the pad tighter, and his tail droops down to hang limply off the side of the bed. “It’s, um, pretty bad.” he says, staring intently at the pad. “The doctors managed to save your eye, but they say you won’t ever see out of it again. And they told us that the scar is going to heal neatly and not pull at the skin around it, so you won’t be all wrinkly and stretched and stuff, but it’s going to be there pretty much forever, and it’s going to be pretty thick and rough.”

Scarlet’s silent for a minute, gently exploring the edges of the bandages.

“Well,” they say eventually. “It’s only an eye.”

“I’m really sorry,” Sun mumbles, poking at the menu again, but not really paying attention to what he’s doing.

“Hey,” Scarlet says, gently kicking Sun’s leg through the sheets to get his attention. “It wasn’t your fault.”

“It _was_ my fault though.” Sun replies unhappily. “I distracted you.”

Scarlet shakes their head softly but firmly. “You did, but that beowolf was about to break past the staff anyway. I’m not exactly made for going face to face with monsters like that,” they say, shrugging. “It would have happened one way or another. It’s at least half my fault anyway. I should have had my weapon out and been ready to fight the moment we came across those beowolves. Instead, I panicked, and this is the price I have to pay for it.”

“But-“

“And,” Scarlet says loudly over the top of him, “I actually really have to thank you. When you distracted me, I turned my head to look at you. If I hadn’t, I’m pretty sure that my entire face would have been ripped open, instead of just the right side. Things could have been a lot worse if not for you.”

“…..I still feel guilty.” Sun mumbles, curling up into a ball and wrapping his tail around him.

“I’ll tell you what. If you feel guilty, you can make it up to me by sneaking me some good food while I’m in here,” Scarlet says, grinning. “Hospital food sucks.”

“….I can do that,” Sun says, hesitantly accepting the undeserved olive branch that’s being held out to him. He really wouldn’t blame Scarlet if they hated him forever and asked to be moved to a different team or have Sun kicked out, but apparently they don’t hate him, not even a little bit.

“So, uh, what do you want to eat?” Sun says, picking the datacomm pad back up. “I figure you’ll have to still eat the food here every now and then, even if it is bad. The options are, um....pasta, yoghurt, scrambled eggs, fruit purees, mashed potatoes, and jelly and ice-cream.”

“I’ll have the pasta and the jelly and ice-cream,” Scarlet replies. “Can you ask if they have any green jelly?”

“Yeah, I think there’s a requests box,” Sun replies, ticking the right boxes and scrolling down. “Yeah, here it is. ‘Please send green jelly’. Alright, done.”

“Thanks Sun,” Scarlet says, pulling the pillows up higher and leaning back against them. “If I fall asleep again before it gets here, wake me up, will you? I think I’ve slept long enough, and I’m absolutely starving.”

“I dunno, I might have to eat the dessert first,” Sun muses with a straight face.

Scarlet’s eye narrows. “Don’t you dare. That’s the best bit.”

“I know, that’s why I want to eat it.” Sun replies, grinning.

“You do and I’ll dye your hair purple once I get out of here.” Scarlet promises.

“.....you wouldn’t.” Sun says after a minute, but he doesn’t really feel too sure about that.

“Try me.” Scarlet says, staring him dead in the eyes.

“Alright, _alright_.” Sun says, giving up. “I’ll just get them to bring up extra.”

“Glad to see we understand each other,” Scarlet says, smiling victoriously.

Sun grumbles good-naturedly, poking at the datacomm pad again and doubling the amount of desserts.

“Also,” Scarlet says, pointing to Sage and Neptune “I figure those are our teammates, since I kind of remember they were there when we were fighting the beowolf, but, uh, mind introducing me to them? I kind of have no idea who they are beyond ‘Blue’ and ‘Green’.”

“Oh, that’s Sage and Neptune,” Sun says, nodding at them as he says their names. “Wanna hear some embarrassing stories about Neptune? He’s going to do the exact same thing once he gets to know you, I might as well get in first.”

Scarlet grins widely. “I would _love_ to hear embarrassing stories.”

Sun grins back.  Things are going to be alright.

 

Present

Scarlet stares at the two with wide, innocent eyes, one a normal black and white with tiny pink veins, the other completely milky white, with a large jagged scar running above and below it. As they let the fire in their hand die down, the hair falls back over the right side of their face, hiding it away again.

“Come on, let’s go find Neptune and get lunch at that noodle place you were talking about,” they say, reaching up and smoothing down their hair.

“You’re really going to like it,” Sun says, nudging at the back of Sage’s head until he starts walking forwards. “They’ve got this shredded beef noodle soup thing, and it is _so_ delicious. I had three bowls of it, and stole half of Neptune’s. He took half of my dessert though, so it was all fair. And the old guys that runs the shop is really cool, he doesn’t even care that I’m a Faunus! And he has the coolest stories. A few months ago he was nearly robbed until a girl in his shop beat the crap out of the bad guys, and a while ago he accidentally nearly ran a girl over, until another girl stopped his truck with her bare hands!”

“That does sound pretty cool,” Scarlet agrees, Sage nodding along.

Sun suddenly notices a blue head moving along the other side of the square the three of them have just entered.

“That way, that way!” Sun says, grabbing Sage’s head and gently hauling it to the left until Sage is going in the right direction.

“Hey, Neptune! NEPTUNE!” Sun calls, waving wildly. Neptune’s head comes up and starts swivelling around, until he finally spots them. His face breaks into a wild grin, and he starts jogging towards them.

“I didn’t realise you guys were here already,” he says once he reaches them. “Sorry, I got caught up doing some stuff.”

“Were you studying in the library again?” Scarlet asks, lifting an eyebrow.

“ _No_ ,” Neptune says, scoffing as if the idea is ridiculous. Scarlet keeps staring at him. “……yes.” Neptune finally admits after a minute.

“You are _such_ a nerd.” Scarlet says, darting around and jumping up onto Neptune’s back and, once Neptune’s arms automatically come up to catch their legs, wrapping an arm around Neptune’s head and giving him a noogie.

“Scarlet! No! You know how long it takes to get my hair looking that good!” Neptune squeals.

Sun grins from his position on Sage’s shoulders.

The four of them are back together again, and this tournament is going to be _awesome_.


End file.
